Department of Sociology

Sociology of Gender

In this course, gender will be studied in a comparative perspective using examples from Pakistan.

Current gender theory emphasizes the division of labor, power, social control, violence, and ideology as structural and interactional bases of inequalities among men and women of different social classes and racial ethnic groups instead as an individual trait or outcome of childhood socialization. Gender is an organizing principle of society and its institutions like culture, economy, politics, and the family. How gender is constructed varies across time and space. What is considered "natural" for a woman (or a man) to do in one society is conceived inappropriate in another. But there are not only differences between societies but also within societies -- race and class interacts with gender resulting in different norms.

Sociology of Education

While schools are certainly sites of teaching and learning, they are also complex social organizations that reflect, are influenced by, and themselves shape broader society. To understand these processes, it is important to consider relationships among actors within schools – teachers, students, their classmates, their parents, coaches, counselors, administrators and other school staff – as well as the impacts of local, state, and federal policies on the social organization of schools. The sociological perspective can be useful to examine patterns of inequality in what students learn, how long they stay in schooling, and what happens to them as they enter adulthood. These patterns may vary by where they live, the socioeconomic situation of their families, their racial-ethnic background, their citizenship status, their gender, and other dimensions of their personal background. Additionally, these background characteristics are often tied to the quality and social organization of the schools that students attend, further influencing the structure of educational opportunities they have available to them. Finally, the course will examine cross-national differences in education and educational values in relation to individual and societal life course outcomes such as career choice, marriage and family, earned income, and economic competitiveness. 

Sociology of Health and Illness

The sociology of health and illness is a broad field examining the social production of health, wellness, illness and mortality. We cannot understand the topics of health and illness simply by looking at biological phenomena and medical knowledge, but, instead, we must also consider a variety of social, political, economic, and cultural forces. We will study the central topics in the field, with an emphasis on the themes: the structural and cultural dimensions of health; health inequalities; the experience of illness etc. Throughout the course, we will apply sociological theory and the recent scholarship of anthropology, history and social and cultural studies of science to make sense of contemporary issues in medicine. The global context will also be considered under debate.

Political Sociology and Post-Colonial Perspectives

Political sociology is the study of the relationship between society and politics.

Traditionally political sociologists have focused on such topics as the types of sociopolitical orders, theories of the state, or political culture. Recent years have seen much attention being devoted to the socio-historical study of a range of issues relating to state power, social stratification, war, violence, political legitimacy, authority, ideology, citizenship, social movements, nationalism, ethnicity and globalization. This course will provide an introduction to both classical and contemporary issues in political sociology. It will review the leading theoretical and historical approaches in the field in a way that illustrates theory with concrete empirical work and historical case studies.

Sociology of Technology

As students and researchers, we are relying more and more of the soft versions of our readings than and less on books compiled and printed at printing presses. In a single day you might talk to your parents on your cell phone, buy books on the internet with a credit card, and enter your student number to register for class, or drive to the store. Technology is everywhere, and even if we take it for granted it is easy to see that it influences our lives. But how do our lifestyles, our values and social norms influence technology in the first place? Where do new technologies come from, how are they picked up and used, and why are they crafted the way they are? What is the dark side of technology: what is the nexus between technology, society and crime; and how has technology the face of war and conflict in the world. Addressing these questions with examples,

 The course identifies and describes numerous sociological theories and concepts which help us understand the dynamics of technological development and diffusion, as well as the impact of technology on social interaction, community, medicine, organization of work, food production, the natural environment, transportation, communications, and more.

Migration and Diasporas

This course will address the social, economic and political dimensions of migration and diasporas as well as politics related to constructions of non-belonging, cultural productions and imaginations. Building on theories of migration, we will study different world scenarios of migration with their causes and impacts on the world order.

Globalization and Development

Globalization is used to describe various differing social, economic, and political processes. Most commonly, globalization is used to refer to increasing interconnections of people, ideas, and money across the world. While some scholars may praise the connections offered by globalization, others provide more critical accounts of the homogenizing impacts of globalization on culture and the exploitative nature of transnational corporations on both people and the natural environment. In this course we examine both the ways that globalization is producing a world that while diverse, is changing through increased interconnectedness and new form of mobilization on the ground that challenge various forms of inequalities(environmental, poverty, etc.) that are often associated with the process of globalization.

This course will help students critically assess the ideas, issues and theories to understand globalization. This will include a discussion of the history and development of globalization, the cultural, social, economic and political impacts of global relations and the consequences of an interconnected world. 

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship is vital to understand and resolve current social problems. It will help students to identify social problems and strategically seeking solution of those problems through effective resource utilization. Hands on training will be provided to the students by assigning real life projects.

Identity Construction in the Globalized World                                                                         

This course is concerned with the process of identity construction in a globalized world. The course will draw from multiple readings, mediums, and perspectives, while highlighting the intersectional influences of religion, gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. in shaping identities and life experiences in systems of societal privileges and oppressions in the current global milieu. Through this course, students will be facilitated in enhancing their skills of placing individuals in an increasingly global context and in situating social struggles and enabling social change.

Governance and Public Policy                                                                                                         

Governance and Public Policy will help the students to understand the major political ideological perspectives in this country which impact upon policy process and content. This course will provide the students with an understanding of social problems, social movements and institutional development and enable them to connect the intricacies of policy making with the idea of good governance, and to critically evaluate current practices of policy making and governance.

Religion, Culture, and Society                                                                                                        

This course is based in the traditions of the sociology of religion, and aims at enabling students to explore the social construction of religion, the interaction of religion and culture, and how societies build on the values transmitted through both. Through the course, students will be encouraged to investigate contemporary debates surrounding the changing dynamics of religious and cultural experiences in the current transnational context.

Cultural Anthropology

This course introduces students to one of the four central sub-disciplines of anthropology cultural anthropology. Central themes of the course will consider, the appearance of culture, social organization, culture change and domestication. After completing this course, students will:

1. Understand the basic concepts and methods of anthropology

2. Understand the nature of human biological and cultural diversity

3. Be familiar with a variety of cross-cultural expressions of societies and cultures

4. Be able to critically apply the anthropological perspective on one’s own society and culture

Ethnology of Pakistan

We take aspects of our own culture as self-understood and natural, that is, we think our way of living is how one should live. Yet within Pakistan alone exist very different ways of being in the world, that is, different world views. Yet there are also basic similarities between many people of Pakistan, while others stand more apart. The existing anthropological material on Pakistan will be divided into several regions, and each will! selectively considered. In order to evaluate the different ethnographies, we will also loo their different analytical topics and theoretical perspectives, thus taking Pakistan as an example of an ethnographic context. This course is intended to: 

1. Instill in the students an awareness of the overall unifying concerns o disciplines of sociology and anthropology. Provide them with a solid grounding in the concepts, theoretical perspectives, and bodies of knowledge used and produced by the disciplines. 

2. Familiarize students with the basics of academic ethics and research strategies used by social scientists in their attempts to understand and analyze the world in a systematic manner. 

3. Equip students with the ability to engage with and reflect on argument critical manner, develop their own arguments systematically, and polish their academic writing skills. 

Anthropology of Consumption

This course offers students the opportunity to engage with theories of communication and culture through the context of consumption and contemporary consumer society. The focus will be on the role of commodities and consumer practices in everyday life. We will give particular attention to consumption's role in the construction of social and cultural identities. Students will consider critical responses to consumer culture, including the resistance and refusal of consumption as well as the attempted mobilization of consumption toward social change. Upon completion of this course, students will be well-equipped to:

1. Define consumption as it relates to culture and individual/group/national identity 

2. Summarize key debates on economic, political and spatial effects of consumer culture 

3. Classify consumption with regard to lifestyle, consumer subjectivity, meaning-making and resistance, keeping in mind that identity plays a role in determining the former

4. Analyze refusal, ethical consumption and anti-consumption practices and how counteract mainstream median and cultural tendency to consume 

Islamic History and Civilization

Islamic History and Civilization course look comparatively, within anthropological framework as opposed to theological or ideological per perspectives, at how Islam is diversely lived practiced and understood around the globe. The course is designed to familiarize students with both classic and contemporary analyses of the unity and variety of major cultural expressions of Islam. The course, thus, will introduce students to the diverse range of theoretical and methodological debates within the anthropology of Muslim Cultures and Societies regarding universal and local ways of being Muslim. By the end of this course participants will be able: 

1. To understand the diversity of the ways of being Muslim in the world today.

2. To apply anthropological theories and concepts in the analysis of diverse cultural representations of Islam

3. To develop students’ research interests. 

BS Sociology

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

Sociology is “the systematic study of human society” (Macionis, 2011).  Sociology is based on both theory and empirical observation.  This course will provide you with a strong introduction to sociology.  It gives you a sociological perspective so that you can think critically and understand the basic concepts, theories, and the vocabulary of sociology. It also means that you can use the tools and concepts from the course to understand better your own society as well as other societies.

DEVELOPMENT of SOCIAL THOUGHT AND CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

This course introduces some of the “classical” theoretical traditions that have guided sociological work. We will read and discuss selections from theorists whose works have shaped the discipline. Those considered will include De Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Mead, Parsons, and Goffman. To the extent possible, we will place these authors’ contributions in their historical contexts; although we can only skim the surface of social thought's rich history. We will focus on the analytical assumptions and implications of each theoretical approach.

Sociological theories try to render the social world understandable. They are logical apparatuses with empirical implications. We will explore both how to grasp the internal logic of a theory and how that theory applies to real social processes and to history. We will also try to improve students' analytical and writing skills.

CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES

This course aims at introducing students to the contemporary sociological theories with the aim of highlighting the relevance of both in the contemporary society. Special emphasis would be paid on how sociologists in different eras engaged their respective societies to derive a theory and how these theories continued to remain relevant as times and power dynamics changed. Whereas independent, critical analysis of the works by the students would be highly appreciated, students should first try to understand the text on its own terms before pointing out the shortcomings.

SOCIOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

This course introduces students to problems of inequality in wealth and welfare from a global, comparative, and historical perspective. The causes and consequences of inequalities among countries will be examined. The first half of the course will introduce major perspectives to and issues in development. The second half will be devoted to some specific issues centered on the themes of violence, conflict and reconstruction.  

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

The core objective of this course is to introduce the diversity of human societies and cultures by offering tools to better understand their lifestyles and beliefs. It is hoped that this course will allow the students to see, understand, and respect the mesmerizing diversity of cultures that make our species unique. With the help of case studies and documentaries, this course will be a roller coaster ride through remote corners of the planet, introducing strange cultural practices that prevail around us.

GENDER AND SOCIETY

The course is designed to will review key concepts and debates regarding gender and its position in the Society. It will equip students with the analytical and conceptual skills needed to understand gender issues in both contexts, enabling them to participate effectively in gender and social research, policymaking and implementation.

• To understand the way of gender defined in a culture and the impact of these definitions on the lives of men and women within Society.
• To explores various areas in which gender plays a role in structuring the way men and women interact, constrain or expand the opportunities available to people, comes to define the individual to him- or herself and is transferred to the next generation via Language, Childhood Socialization and Education.
• To encourages students to be critical consumers of media and of the presentations of gender in society. Issues such as gender Discrimination, Privilege and Politics are viewed from the perspective of gender definitions and the impact of feminism on the study of gender and lives of Men and Women.
• To provide an introduction to the theoretical perspectives that has informed current thinking in gender and development.
•  To bring the conceptual and analytical skills in gender and development

INDUSTRIAL SOCIOLOGY

This course looks at the nature of work and how it has changed over time, e.g., with industrialization, the growth of the service sector, and new technologies. Examines issues relating to management, labour organizations, and government regulations. Topics to be treated include the process of industrialization in developing countries, industrial work groups and informal organization, the nature of work and industrial relations and its applications.

POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

Political sociology is the study of the relationship between society and politics. Traditionally political sociologists have focused on such topics as the types of sociopolitical orders, theories of the state, or political culture. Recent years have seen much attention being devoted to the socio-historical study of a range of issues relating to state power, social stratification, war, violence, political legitimacy, authority, ideology, citizenship, social movements, nationalism, ethnicity and globalization. This course will provide an introduction to both classical and contemporary issues in political sociology. It will review the leading theoretical and historical approaches in the field in a way that illustrates theory with concrete empirical work and historical case studies.

SOCIAL WORK

This course is an opportunity for students to explore, develop, and apply the concepts for understanding and acting within the professional and academic field of community and regional development. This course starts from the basic assumption that community development is best characterized as complex. Complexity signifies that the amount of possibilities from which to choose by far exceeds what ever can become an implantable praxis. Hence, this abundance makes any applied decision precarious.

The many theoretical approaches that will be discussed in this course are meant to let the participants understand why the community development is a constant, never ending, and often contradictory process of shifting social figurations.

ADVANCED RESEARCH METHODS

At the heart of every science are the methodological strategies that distinguish the scientific perspective from other forms of knowledge-building. Sociology has been a maturing science for more than a century, with a wide range of methods that trained researchers use to investigate social phenomena. The present course serves as an introduction to the dominant approaches and important tools that sociologists often employ to study social life. By the end of the academic term, students should have a much greater appreciation for what distinguishes sociological research from other disciplines (e.g., the humanities) and other approaches to knowledge-building such as religious authority, tradition, common sense, and mass media communications. In combination with our introductory class in statistics, the course ideally should provide students with a range of practical skills and prepare students for more advanced study in social research methods and statistics.

SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH & ILLNESS

This course examines the social, cultural, political, and economic context of health and illness. The first part of the course focuses on the structural aspects of health and health care. The second part highlights professional socialization, patient-physician interactions, and the personal narratives of illness and disability. The course offers a critical perspective on health and illness and highlights the connection between social justice, social transformation, and health and illness.

SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to some of the major themes in the sociology of education, as well as some of the theoretical frameworks, epistemological traditions, and analytical skills used by sociologists to investigate social phenomenon. Schools, colleges, and universities as social institutions will be analyzed by emphasizing their function in modem societies and their impact on social processes and the life chances of individuals. The schools will be observed as a society within itself, with its own dominant system of values, ideology, and relationships of power and authority. We will also examine the interpersonal relationships within schools: the types of interaction that occur, and the opportunities for learning and development.

ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY

This is an introductory course to Economic Sociology, devoted to the theoretical foundation of economic sociology. We will carefully go through what an economy is, how the perspectives of economics and sociology differ, and the type of analysis that can be found in the classics as well in modern economic sociology. We will then see how these different theoretical tools have been used, and can be used, in analyzing a number of substantive topics, from the firm to markets to institutions and institutional change, and to entrepreneurship.

SOCIOLOGY OF MEDIA                                             

The course (1) provides students with grounding in media sociology and (2) prepares students for doing their own media research. To facilitate the first objective, we survey the media literature that spans a number of disciplines, which includes (but is not limited to) sociology, communications, and history. In pursuing this survey, we touch upon the following themes: (a) We examine how various media industries (e.g., radio, TV, record, motion picture, print) are organized and how such organization is sometimes transformed by regulation, competition, and/or technology. (b) We focus on media content and investigate factors that promote stability, change, and diversity. (c) We address the consumers of mass media products and inspect how they utilize and are affected by media content. To facilitate the second objective (i.e., doing research), we give special attention to methods and designs employed in current research, and we heed how theoretical ideas are translated into empirical projects. Thus, by the end of the semester, each student will have a grasp of the field and an understanding of how to do media sociology.

ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY

Environmental sociology is a field that includes many theoretical and methodological approaches. Above all, it recognizes there is an important and dynamic relationship between human social structures and the surroundings in which humans live. Environmental sociologists attend to ways the environment shapes social institutions and interactions as well as the way these affect the environment that surrounds us. Before the 1970s sociologists did not consider the environment a topic relevant in our discipline. Today it is one of the fastest growing subdisciplines. This course is designed to introduce students to important perspectives and debates in the field of environmental sociology. By examining case studies, we will consider the contribution sociology makes to the study of the environment and environmental problems. Particular attention will be paid to considering how environmental problems reflect and exacerbate ongoing social divisions in society related to class, gender, race, nationality, age, as well as between humans and nonhumans.

RURAL SOCIOLOGY

This course centers on the sociology of poverty in rural areas in the United States as well as in other, particularly third-world nations.  The sociology of poverty is part of the broader study of stratification, a core substantive field in the discipline.   The course situates the topic of rural poverty into sociological theories and research on stratification.   However, sociological theory and research on poverty and inequality are often aspatial or have an urban bias.  We thus go beyond conventional approaches to studying poverty and add a spatial dimension.  Our focus is: “Who gets what, where and why?” Attention is to spatial inequalities in socioeconomic well-being within the U.S. and cross-nationally.

URBAN SOCIOLOGY

The course provides knowledge of the concepts and approaches of urban sociology.  It targets at providing necessary skills to the students for the solution of urban social issues. The causes, theories and affects of urbanization will also be explored.  The study of human ecology, urban ways of life, neighborhood, and residential differentiation will be carried out.

SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

This course seeks to introduce undergraduate students to the nature and functions of religious beliefs and institutions in modern societies, with a primary emphasis on conditions in the contemporary Pakistani society. Throughout the course, a distinctively sociological perspective is employed to evaluate claims about the viability of religion in what has come to be called a "post-traditional," or "post-modern" world.

CLINICAL SOCIOLOGY

Clinical sociology is a humanistic, multidisciplinary approach that seeks to improve the quality of people’s lives though assessing situations and reducing problems using analysis and intervention. The field is based on the assumption that many human needs are social and therefore are not amenable to the traditional psychological models designed to remedy human problems. Clinical sociologists have different areas of expertise—such as health promotion, sustainable communities, social conflict, or cultural competence—and work in many capacities. 

SOCIOLOGY OF KINSHIP & FAMILY

This course presents the social and cultural forces that have implications for the formation and maintenance of social relationships with special attention to marriage and family forms and functioning. Additionally, the course will compare social/cultural patterns and implications for individuals, groups, and society. The course includes (but is not limiited to) a focus on social aspects of relationship formation (mate selection), familial roles, parental roles, sexuality, gender and the life cycle.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF PAKISTAN

The course provides a review of sociological problems of Pakistan.  It focuses on the content and effectiveness of Problems of health and environment, Population problems, Orientation to culture of Pakistan, and Major social problems in Pakistan i.e. Beggary, Child labor/abuse, Bonded labor, Bad governance, Gender discrimination, Illiteracy, Family violence in terms of understanding social world. This course focus remains on the basis for a better understanding of the character and dynamics of societies around the world. The content of the course also help to understand the solution of the sociological problems in Pakistan. The content of this course is to give a holistic understanding of social problems of Pakistan in local and global perspectives.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

This course offers a broad introduction to social psychology, the scientific study of human social influence and interaction.  We will explore the various ways people think about, affect, and relate to one another.  The course will cover topics such as the social self-concept, social judgment, attitudes, persuasion, conformity, aggression, helping behavior, prejudice, and interpersonal relationships.

CRIMINOLOGY

This course aims to give an introduction to a wide range of questions about offending behaviour, crime and its control, drawing on criminological theory and research. The course introduces the origins and development of thinking about crime, patterns of offending behaviour, the problems of determining what we “know” about crime and the implications for how we should respond. Throughout the course there is an emphasis on the relationships between theory, research and practice and students are encouraged to think critically about the nature of ¿evidence¿ in relation to crime and control. All course materials are hosted on the Law School website. Examines the causes of criminal behavior. Also examines ethical issues, policy implications, and research.

 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

This course focuses on four key orientations for the analysis of social movements: (1) the relationship between structural change and transformations in patterns of social conflict; (2) the role of cultural representations in social conflict; (3) the process of transforming values, interests, and ideas into collective action; and (4) an examination of how social, political and/or cultural context affects a movements’ chance of success and the forms they take (Della Porta and Diani, 2006). The objective of the course is to develop participants’ understanding of social movements through social and political theory and research, and to encourage informed reflection on their own activities or observations of protest, contention and social movements. Case studies will be used to illustrate some of the mechanisms and processes of social movement theory. Case studies under examination will include the following: the Canadian labour movement, anti-globalization protests, the global rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and the growth of right-wing fundamentalists in the U.S., among others.